Uconn

Daigneault: Aresco hiring is good move for a league at risk By Ed Daigneault Republican-American

This undated photo provided by CBS Sports shows CBS executive vice president Mike Aresco. The Big East has hired Aresco to be commissioner of the conference now in rebuilding mode, a person familiar with the decision said Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the conference was still working on an official announcement. (AP Photo/CBS Sports, John P. Filo) MANDATORY CREDIT NO SALES NORTH AMERICA USE ONLY NO ARCHIVE

Since the start of the seismic shift that changed the landscape of college athletics, and consequently sent the Big East into a spiral, the conference has tried desperately to cling to the notion that everything would be just fine.

It admitted to some anxious moments and engaged in a series of moves that seemed to be made for the simple sake of doing something. All the while, former commissioner John Marinatto tried to have us believe that everything was all wine and roses.

He had to do that. Conference officials had no choice but to try to paint the prettiest of pictures even as the worst art critic could see the picture was a random scribbling.

New commissioner Mike Aresco, named to the post Tuesday, served the same wine and roses Wednesday. Coming from him, it was much easier to digest.

Maybe, just maybe, the Big East will be fine. Maybe, beyond all expectations, it will thrive in the new landscape.

"I don't want to focus on what (the conference) was and what happened in the past," said Aresco, who was plucked from a position as a CBS executive vice president for programming. "I want to focus on the future.

See ARESCO, Page 4C

That's the story I have to tell.

"There's a palpable sense of excitement. I could feel it. That's why I took the job. I feel very strongly about this conference. I feel very strongly about its future."

This is not something we haven't heard from Marinatto and others within the conference. And that is the point.

Aresco is the first Big East commissioner from outside the conference. The Connecticut native did not come from the family. Choosing from within was laudable at first, but the league had no choice but to go outside this time.

Those who made the choice couldn't possibly have selected a person with more relevant experience than Aresco. He has vast knowledge of television negotiations and loads of experience negotiating those deals as they pertain to college sports.

That $11 billion deal between CBS, Turner and the NCAA for the men's basketball tournament? Aresco had a lot to do with it. The March Madness on Demand online platform that is so popular was his creation. By all accounts, he is the forward thinker who could save the Big East.

The landscape is more than unstable enough for the Big East to still implode, but it won't happen without Aresco fighting as much as possible to avoid it.

"The current membership understands they are stronger," Aresco said. "What I need to do is make sure the current membership feels that I am a tireless, tireless proponent of the conference, that I am telling the conference's story effectively and well. ... I wouldn't have taken the job if I didn't feel the conference was cohesive and committed to the individual schools and each other."

Ultimately, the conference's survival doesn't depend on the man leading it. It depends now on, of course, the almighty dollar. That dollar is going to come from Aresco's ability to maximize the Big East's value in next month's television negotiations.

That will undoubtedly be an uphill battle. The conference soon will stretch from coast to coast, some of the additions barely recognizable. Television networks have zero clue as to what kind of audience the reconstituted Big East might grab, so taking a chance could be detrimental.

It is up to Aresco to convince the networks that the Big East is both viable at the moment and much more viable in the future. Marinatto, a nice guy with virtually no charisma, was not the man to do that. Aresco just might be.

"At the end of the day," Aresco said, "the value of the conference will be recognized and maximized."

A month from now, we'll know the value of the league and its new leader.

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